Burner is an app for your smartphone which lets you create a fake number which automatically forwards its calls to your phone.

Imagine you’ve just met someone and you think they’re kind of cool, but you’re not sure you’re ready to give them your actual number. In a situation like that, a temporary number would be really useful. Burner is an app that allows you to make one; it lets you create a number for an area code of your choosing, and then forwards that number to your real one. Burner was released as an iOS only app back in August, and after nine months of success, it’s launching on Android.

Gone are the days of giving out fake numbers that lead to the local sandwich shop

Using it is simple: The app comes with a “create burner” button, which when pressed brings you to a dialogue screen where you can pick an available number for an area code. One more button and the new number is set up and will forward its calls to you. It works with both calls and texts, just like any other number and when you’re done, it can be removed easily. While the app is free and comes with a free burner number, continued use will require you to buy credits. $2 will get you a number that lasts for a week, with 20 voice minutes and 60 texts included. So far the app is only available for North American numbers, understandably.

Burner isn’t the first application to offer this kind of service for Android. Hushed is another app which was launched in January and actually received a comment by Burner’s CEO for being too similar. Another thing to note, for all you budding criminals out there: The app may give you a fake number, but it obviously doesn’t make you anonymous, and you can’t use it to hide from the boys in blue.